The Hanging of John H. Skaggs and the Attempt to Resuscitate Him

From the vault of hideous medical experimentation: the hanging of John H. Skaggs and the attempt to use electrical current to return him from the dead.  This horrible story is a real historical Frankenstein episode from the backwoods country of the Missouri boot-heel of 1870.

Update on the Mystery of Elijah Skaggs

I haven't posted in awhile since during the coronavirus lockdown I've been helping with a project to document all the Skaggs lines in the United States since 1850 on FamilySearch.  The researchers have completed virtually all of California, Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Colorado and it's been a lot of work.  If you have Skaggs ancestors on those lines it would be great if you could go back and check the accuracy of the work and attach any straggler documentation that we missed to the proper person.




Our friend from the Isle of Man, Chris Keig, and his Big-Y DNA test subjects have been working hard as well on the DNA end of things.  One apparent revelation that has come from this DNA testing is regarding the mystery of who were Elijah and Harriet Skaggs of Green County, Kentucky c. 1860.  You may recall that this Elijah Skaggs died in the Civil War in 1863 and was a brick wall for many Skaggs genealogists for years.  Through DNA testing and the diligent genealogical research of one of Chris' test subjects it appears that this mystery may be solved.  Both DNA and genealogical evidence suggest that William Brock Skaggs and Nancy Warren were the parents of this Elijah Skaggs.  William Brock Skaggs was the grandson of James "Longman" Skaggs and Mary, the Longhunter son of James and Rachel Skaggs of New River, Virginia.


1 James Skaggs m. Rachel
     2 James "Longman" Skaggs m. Mary Thompson
          3 Henry Skaggs m. Nancy
               4 William "Brock" Skaggs m. Nancy Warren
                    5 Elijah Skaggs m. Harriet Skaggs


FYI, below is the current genealogy for Elijah's wife, Harriet Skaggs:


1 James Skaggs m. Rachel
     2 James "Longman" Skaggs m. Mary Thompson
          3 Jeremiah Skaggs m. Rebecca Mayes
               4 Matthew Skaggs m. Catherine Long
                    5 Harriet Skaggs m. Elijah Skaggs

Who Were the Wayne County West Virginia Scaggs?

There were groups of Scaggs families who showed up in Wayne County, Virginia in the 1850s.  Wayne is now the West Virginia county across the Tug Fork from Lawrence County, Kentucky, the ancestral home of the Big Sandy Skaggs descended from Old Peter.  Who were these Scaggs families and were they related to Old Peter?

What Ever Happened to Fort Scaggs?

At the outbreak of the Civil War the Confederates threatened Washington, D.C.  The Union Army designed a ring of forts around Washington to defend the city from Confederate attacks initiated from Virginia or Maryland.  Selby Scaggs, a descendant of Richard Scaggs and Sarah Selby, owned land in northeast D.C. that the government used to build a circular earthwork called Fort Scaggs.

Famous Skaggs: Larkin Skaggs

The most notorious Skaggs in history was the Missouri bushwacker Larkin Skaggs.  He was a Baptist preacher who rode with William Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War.  He was the only one of Quantrill's raiders killed when they burned the city of Lawrence, Kansas. More about this infamous bushwacker below the fold.

Name that Skaggs: West Virginia Skaggs

The Scaggs family below is descended from Old Peter Skaggs yet they are from West Virginia.  The few DNA tests we have had indicate that the West Virginia Skaggs descended from Thomas b. 1728 have a Y-haplotype of R1b while Old Peter Skaggs' descendants look like R1a, so I wouldn't expect a family of West Virginia Skaggs to be descended from Old Peter.

This picture was taken about 1914 in Wayne County, West Virginia.  Who were these Scaggs?  The answer below the fold...

Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.